East Anglian Air Ambulance has had its application to build a purpose built air ambulance base at New Shardelowes Farm in Fulborn south east of Cambridge approved by South Cambridgeshire District Council the first hurdle to secure a new facility in the county.
The charity, which operates from two bases in Cambridge and Norwich, ensuring its two helicopters can cover anywhere in the region within 25 minutes, has had to search for an alternative site to operate its Cambridge-based service due to the impending closure of Cambridge City Airport.
To find a site that offered similar response times to its current home, East Anglian Air Ambulance carried out extensive research and assessed dozens of potential sites, including airfields, across Cambridgeshire. The Fulbourn site ranked highest against specialist aviation, clinical, and rapid-response criteria.
The charities next challenge will be raising the funds to build the new base which will include in addition to the helipads and hangar include a garage area for the charity’s critical care cars, crew facilities, a medical store, a training and educational area, and overnight accommodation and resting facilities for night shift and visiting crew, as well as office space for ground staff.
Richard Hindson, East Anglian Air Ambulance Director of Operations and Infrastructure, said: “East Anglian Air Ambulance and the owners of Cambridge City Airport, Marshall, have worked together since 2007 to ensure that the charity’s Cambridge crew can swiftly attend local people in their moment of greatest need. But that chapter is coming to an end with the planned closure of the airport. We have acted quickly to identify a new site for our Cambridge-based operation that will allow us to continue providing this vital service, which directly treated over 900 people in 2025. We are delighted to have been granted planning permission for our new base in Fulbourn, and grateful to all those who supported our application. However, this is just the start of our journey to a new home. Creating a new Cambridgeshire air base, from scratch, is our biggest ever project and we need to raise a significant sum of money to make this happen.
Image: Fabric First Architects
